On September 19, a ban on russian citizens’ entry with Schengen visas into Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland came into effect. The ban applies to holders of all tourist Schengen visas that were previously issued in any EU country. Finland remains the only country where russians can still cross the land border with the EU.
“Together with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, we have decided to jointly limit tourism opportunities for russian citizens in order to protect public order and security. It is now impossible to guarantee that russian tourists arriving through Estonia to the EU do not pose a security risk,” said the joint statement of the prime ministers of the four countries.
“Some leaders in the EU claim that it is Putin, not ordinary citizens of Russia, who wages war against Ukraine. However, in reality we see that most Russians eagerly support the illegal actions of their government. Russian citizens are also the ones who have elected and continue to support Putin and other Russian war criminals to run the state. So, they now have to bear responsibility for their actions,” Paul Grod, UWC President said earlier in a statement calling on the international community to cancel the action and stop issuing entry visas to all citizens of the russian federation.
In early September, EU countries decided to terminate the agreement on simplified visa issuance for russia. This led to an increase in the visa fee from 35 to 80 euros, the need to provide additional documents, an increase in visa processing time, and a tightening of the rules for issuing multiple-entry visas.
According to RF’s Association of Tour Operators, a total of 9 countries no longer accepts documents for issuing tourist visas from Russian citizens: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The Swiss government decided on Friday (September 16) to stop issuing facilitated visas for Russian nationals.
